LGBTQ Spirit Day is a day to remember all those young people who took their lives because of their sexual orientation. They were bullied at school, in their communities or at home because of their sexual orientation and in honor of them people across...

Friends of comedian Robin Williams, who died Monday at age 63 in an apparent suicide, urged the public Monday to seek help if they have suicidal thoughts and encouraged friends to stay alert to any warning signs of depression.
"Robin was as sweet a...

The end was shockingly sudden: a belt hung on a door; an assistant's distraught call to 911. But the road that led to Robin Williams' apparent suicide at age 63 was a long one — and if you knew where to look, there were plenty of signposts...

Two of the best things I've ever read about suicide are poems.
They contain no statistics, no quotes from experts, no discussion of antidepressants, none of the sound-bite analysis that has followed Robin Williams' death. They approach the topic in a...

A McHenry County sheriff's deputy shot and injured a suicidal woman after she emerged from a residence with a .223-caliber assault rifle and pointed it at authorities Sunday, officials announced this monring.
The 53-year-old woman is being treated at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville for a gunshot wound to her neck following the incident in the 7400 block of Boston Road in Wonder Lake.
Deputies were called to the residence at about 5 p.m. Sunday regarding a suicidal subject, according to...

Del. Heather R. Mizeur's call for legalized suicide for the terminally ill ("Mizeur backs physician-assisted suicide," April 16) demonstrates incredibly poor judgment.
As a senior, I have seen healthy seniors badgered or misled by relatives or significant others into making very bad financial and other decisions. The terminally ill are particularly vulnerable to such manipulation. Greedy heirs or those who are inconvenienced by a sick person can exert tremendous overt and covert psychological...

A man who hanged himself in the Lake County Jail early this morning had been placed on suicide watch in recent weeks out of an excess of caution, though a mental health evaluation uncovered no indication that he was planning to harm himself, authorities said today.
Igor Karlukov, a 36-year-old native of Ukraine who was living in Palatine, used a mesh laundry bag and wire from a pair of earphones to rig a noose in his jail cell, Lake County Undersheriff Ray Rose said at a press conference this afternoon....

Less than three months after her estranged husband killed their 4-year-old son in a murder-suicide, Kyle Weber was fired from her job as a clinical psychologist at a Naperville counseling clinic.
In a recent DuPage County lawsuit, Weber sued her former employer, alleging she was unlawfully terminated in 2013 due to a perception that she suffered mental health issues in the wake of her family tragedy.
The suit alleges discrimination and names Fox Valley Institute for Growth and Wellness as a defendant....

An autopsy determined the death of a 49-year-old Winnetka man who was struck by a train near a Glencoe Metra station last week was a suicide, authorities said.
A Wednesday autopsy determined David DiPaolo, of the 1100 block of Tower Road in Winnetka, died of head injuries from a train hitting him, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
DiPaolo was pronounced dead at 5:46 p.m. Tuesday, and his death was ruled a suicide, according to the medical examiner's office.
A Metra worker found...

A U.S. mission to deliver books to a school in Afghanistan that ended in the death of a young foreign service officer from River Forest was plagued by poor planning that “failed at all levels,” according to a scathing Army report obtained by the Tribune.
Anne Smedinghoff, 25, three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter died on April 6, 2013 when a suicide bomber’s car exploded outside the walls of a U.S. military base in Zabul province in southern Afghanistan.
The Army report for the...